Barker Bites Back

A look at some newsy stuff and interesting bits as well as those hopefully amusing byways of technology.

Colin Barker

Colin has been a computer journalist for some 30 years having started in the business the same year that the IBM PC was launched, although the first piece he wrote was about computer audit. He was at one time editor of Computing magazine in London and prior to that held a number of editing jobs, including time spent at the late DEC Computing and was also the London editor for Byte magazine. Colin is pleased to report that apart from ZDNet at least two other sites/magazines he has worked for are still in business.
Colin did also live for five years in Boston, Mass.,and as a result became a dedicated Red Sox fan.

Latest Posts

AMD is reported to have announced six new 45nm processors to be launched in the third quarter of this year and aimed at business users. The announcement follows AMD's launch of its first 45nm Shanghai processor in November this year.

The Consumer Electronics Show is almost upon us (January 8 to 11, Las Vegas) and as it draws closer so the pre-publicity machines of the computer manufacturers start to grind up to full power, while blowing off excess steam.Dell and Lenovo reportedly have new laptops on the blocks and it appears that Sony may be about to join them.

The UK's position at the top of the European software industry is under threat according to a report commissioned by Microsoft in partnership with Intellect and the British Computer Society.The report, Developing the Future, is the third in an annual series and this year, for the first time, it includes a "software barometer" which shows the overall trend across the software industry.

Sometimes an executive can deny something while opening the door to speculation. HP offices did that on Tuesday when while maintaining they could see no reason why their company would have an interest in buying Salesforce.

Microsoft said on Monday that its case against Samir Abdalla of HW Trading was not about “the grey trade” at all, but the “alleged source and sale of illegal, unlicensed Microsoft software”.We first wrote about HW Trading and its managing director, Abdalla on Friday after it emerged that Abdalla was going to Europe with a complaint that Microsoft charges at least a third more for its software in Europe than it does in the US.

A Wolverhampton man has been sentenced to three years in prison for illegally copying and then selling software and DVDs worth a possible £1m.Steve Adams bought an apartment in Spain, a Range Rover and weight-loss surgery while running a major film and software piracy racket the Crown Court in Wolverhampton was told on Friday.

The struggle for market leadership between IBM and HP burst out in the open on Thursday with IBM claiming that since 2004 it has replaced some 5,000 HP systems along with Sun Microsystems and EMC systems with its own.The announcement came as part of IBM's marketing effort which has seen it launch The Migration Factory, the company's sales and marketing effort to show the benefits of its platforms.

A rock concert to benefit self-confessed hacker, Gary McKinnon, is being pitched by the man who runs Glastonbury Radio, who is hoping to recruit bands like Marillion.Ross Hemsworth is putting together the concert, he says, to draw attention to the plight of McKinnon and others who are scheduled for extradition to the US without having committed any offence any serious crime in the UK.

The European Commission has said that it sees climate change as an issue which IT organisations and managers around the world should do their bit to tackle and it now has a plan to make a start on the issue.On Wednesday it publishing its plan for the first time and has started the call for interested parties to contribute their thoughts and ideas.

At the meeting with Bill Watkins, chief executive of Seagate, on Tuesday he did not just talk about solid state storage and its future. He is an outgoing and cheerful man who wants he started talking to a group of journalists showed no signs of wanting to stop anytime soon.